1 This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes are not
2 described. There are more details in the man pages.
10 o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to two device drivers,
11 grops and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will follow). A new
12 function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence `\m' sets the
13 drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the background color for
14 closed objects created with \D'...' commands. Similar to fonts, `\mP' and
15 `\MP' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M' correspond to the
16 new troff output commands `m' and `DF'. The device-specific default color
17 is called `default' and can't be redefined.
19 Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
20 (it is always disabled in compatibility mode).
22 For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
23 indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
24 color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
27 More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
30 o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
31 `Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
33 o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
34 the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
40 . nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
41 . nop I will now define `bar'.
43 . nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
47 o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
48 font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
50 o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. Its
51 syntax is the same as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
52 character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
53 current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
54 the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
55 before checking special fonts.
57 o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
58 with \c counts as one input line.
60 o A new escape sequence `\O' is available (mainly for internal use with
61 grohtml). Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
63 o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
64 the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
66 o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
67 functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
68 `-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
70 o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
73 o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
74 in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
76 o `groff_mwww.1' has been renamed to `groff_www.1'. The file mwww.tmac
79 o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
80 reference to the ms macros.
82 o The macro `NO-AUTO-RULE' has been added to www.tmac; it suppresses the
83 generation of top and bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
88 o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
89 disabled in compatibility mode).
94 o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
95 `outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
96 outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
98 circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
100 Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
102 Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
107 o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
108 converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
109 library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
114 o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
115 groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
121 o Color support has been added.
126 o Color support for glyphs has been added.
128 o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
130 o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
132 o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
133 used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
139 o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
144 This is major bug-fixing release which should replace 1.17.1.
149 o The `IMAGE' macro in www.tmac has changed: Now the optional 2nd parameter
150 gives the horizontal image location (left, centered, or right), and the
151 optional 3rd and 4th parameter the image dimensions.
156 This is mainly a bug-fixing release.
161 o Two new requests `de1' and `am1' which are similar to `de' and `am' but
162 with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of macros defined by
165 o Added request `brp'. This is the same as `\p'.
167 o Similar to other versions of troff, the `ns' request now works in all
168 diversions, not only in the top-level one.
170 o New read-only number register `.ns'. Returns 1 if in no-space mode,
176 o Options -p (pic) and -t (tbl) added.
178 o The environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is now checked before PATH for
184 o New option `-D dir' to specify a directory in which all images are placed.
186 o New option `-I stem' to specify an image name stame. If not given,
187 `grohtml-XXX' is used (`XXX' is the process ID).
195 o `-mFOO' now searches first for `FOO.tmac' and then for `tmac.FOO'. The
196 old behaviour has been changed to overcome problems with platforms which
197 have an 8+3 file name limit, and platforms which have other versions of
198 troff installed also. Additionally, all macro files have been renamed
199 using the latter scheme to avoid 8+3 name clashes.
201 o The new environment variable GROFF_BIN_PATH is checked for programs groff
202 is calling (preprocessors, troff, and output devices) before PATH. If not
203 set, it defaults to the directory where the groff binary is located.
204 Previously, it was PATH only. The nroff script only uses GROFF_BIN_PATH
205 to find the groff binary but passes both the GROFF_BIN_PATH and PATH
206 environment variables to groff.
211 o The mdoc package has been completely rewritten, using the full power of
212 GNU troff to remove limitations of Unix troff (which is no longer
213 supported). Most important changes are:
216 . Almost all macros are parsed and callable (if it makes sense)
217 . `.Lb': prints library names
218 . `.Nm <punctuation>' now works as expected; `.Nm "" <punctuation>' has
220 . Updated `.St' command
221 . `.Fx': prints FreeBSD
222 . `.Ox': prints OpenBSD
223 . `.Bsx': prints BSD/OS
224 . `.Brq', `.Bro', `.Brc': brace enclosure macros
225 . `.Bd -centered': center lines
226 . `.Bl -xwidth <string>': interpret <string> and use the resulting width
227 . Support for double-sided printing (-rD1 command line switch)
228 . Support for 11pt and 12pt document sizes (-rS11, -rS12 command line
231 `groff_mdoc.7' replaces `groff_mdoc.samples.7'; it now completely
232 documents the mdoc package.
234 Great care has been taken to assure backwards compatibility. If you
235 encounter any abnormal results, please report them to bug-groff@gnu.org.
237 o A new command line option for the `man' macros (similar to the `mdoc'
238 package) has been implemented: `-rcR=1' (now the default in nroff mode)
239 produces one single, very long page instead of multiple pages. `-rcR=0'
242 o The `return' request has been added to return immediately from a macro.
244 o A new request `nop' (no operation) has been added which is similar to
251 can now be written as
257 o `box' and `boxa' are two new requests which behave similarly to `di' and
258 `da' but don't include a partially filled line (which is restored after
259 ending the diversion).
261 o The `asciify' request has been extended to `unformat' space characters
262 and some other escape sequences also.
264 `\ ' is no longer unformatted as a space but remains an unpaddable,
265 unbreakable space character.
267 o The new `unformat' request is similar to `asciify' but only handles space
268 characters and tabs specially if the diversion is reread, retaining font
269 information. This makes it possible to reformat diversions; for example
274 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07 a08 a09 a10.
279 \f[B]b01 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08 b09 b10.\f[P]
284 c01 c02 c03 c04 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10.
291 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
292 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
293 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
294 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
297 Without the `unformat' request, space characters are converted to word
298 space nodes which are no longer stretchable, and the result would be
300 a01 a02 a03 a04 a05 a06 a07
301 a08 a09 a10. c01 c02 c03 c04
302 c05 c06 c07 c08 c09 c10. b01
303 b02 b03 b04 b05 b06 b07 b08
306 o The new request `linetabs' controls the `line-tabs' mode. In line-tabs
307 mode, tab distances are computed relative to the (current) output line.
308 Otherwise they are taken relative to the input line. For example, the
323 In line-tabs mode, the same code gives
327 The new read-only number register `.linetabs' returns 1 if in line-tabs
328 mode, and 0 otherwise.
330 o Two new requests `tm1' and `tmc' have been added to improve writing
331 messages to the terminal. `tm1' is similar to `tm' but allows leading
332 whitespace. `tmc' is similar to `tm1' but doesn't emit a final newline.
334 o A new request `dei' (define indirect) has been added. The first and
335 second parameter of `dei' are taken from string registers rather than
336 directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
337 independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
339 o It is now possible to save and restore the escape character with two new
340 requests `ecs' and `ecr'.
342 o The new escape sequence \B'...' is an analogon to `\A': If the string
343 within the delimiters is a valid numeric expression, return character `1',
346 o The new escape sequence `\:' inserts a zero-width break point. This is
347 similar to `\%' but without a soft hyphen character.
349 o The `tr' request can now map characters onto `\~'.
351 o Calling the `fam' request without an argument switches back to the
352 previous font family.
354 o The new read-only register `.int' is set to a positive value if the last
355 output line is interrupted (i.e., if the input line contains `\c').
357 o The `writem' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before. This
358 is similar to `write' but instead of a string the contents of a given
359 macro or string is written to a stream.
361 o The read/write number register `hp' to get/set the current horizontal
362 position relative to the input line isn't new but hasn't been documented
365 o `\X' and `\Y' are now transparent for end-of-sentence recognition.
367 o The `cu' request in nroff mode now works as documented (i.e., it
368 underlines spaces also).
373 o The grog script now works in non-compatibility mode also (which is the
374 default). As usual, use the `-C' option to activate compatibility mode.
379 o A new option `-P' resp. a new environment variable `GROPS_PROLOGUE' has
380 been added to select a different prologue file.
382 o The effect of the former `-mpsnew' option to access more Type 1 characters
383 is now the default and no longer available. To get the old behaviour
384 (i.e., emulation of some glyphs by composition) use `-mpsold'.
389 o For security reasons the following changes have been done:
391 . The tmac.safer file has been replaced with a built-in solution; .open,
392 .opena, .pso, .sy, and .pi are completely disabled in safer mode (which
393 is the default); to enable these requests the `-U' command line flag
396 . Files specified with the .mso request or given with the `-m' command
397 line option, and hyphenation patterns loaded with `.hpf' are no longer
398 searched in the current directory by default (besides the usual tmac
399 path). Instead, the home directory is used. To add the current
400 directory, either use the `-U' or `-M' command line option or set the
401 GROFF_TMAC_PATH environment variable to an appropriate value.
403 . troffrc, troffrc-end, and eqnrc are neither searched in the current nor
404 in the home directory (even if -U is given). Use -M or GROFF_TMAC_PATH
407 . Similarly, the current directory is no longer part of the font path.
408 Use the `-F' command line option or the GROFF_FONT_PATH environment
409 variable if you really need the current directory.
411 o groff now installs its data files into /usr/local/share/groff/<version> by
412 default, following the GNU standard. Additionally, a local tmac directory
413 (by default /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac) is scanned before the
414 standard tmac directory. Wrapper files for system-specific macro packages
415 (if necessary) are put into /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac; this directory
416 is searched before the local tmac directory.
418 o All programs now have option `-v' to show the version number; they exit
419 immediately afterwards, following the GNU standards. Additionally,
420 `--version' and `--help' have been added, doing the obvious actions.
425 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
433 The anachronism of calling the man macro package with `-man' has been fixed;
434 now you can say `-m man' also. The same is true for `ms', `me', `markup',
435 `mandoc', and `mdoc'.
437 A new switch `-g' for calling `grn' is available.
439 A new switch `-G' for calling `grap' is available.
441 EBCDIC support for tty devices has been added. On such hosts, IBM code page
442 1047 is available with -Tcp1047 instead of -Tascii and -Tlatin1 (and, for
443 the moment, -Tutf8). Note that non-tty devices are not yet supported (but
449 A new command line option to the `man' macros is available: `-rSxx' (with
450 `xx' either 10, 11, or 12) to set the base document font size to `xx'
451 points. Additionally, `.SH' now produces larger headings than `.SS'.
453 To solve a problem with the .PSPIC macro which needs the `-U' switch of
454 troff to access an external program (psbb), a new request .psbb is now
455 available to get the bounding box of a PostScript image file. The values
456 (in PostScript units) are returned in the new read-only number registers
457 `llx', `lly', `urx', and `ury'. Consequently, .PSPIC has been adapted to
458 use the new request, and the psbb program has been removed.
460 A new predefined writable number register, `year', has been added. It
461 contains the current year.
463 A new read-only register, `.Y', has been added. It contains the revision
464 number of the groff package.
466 `\fP' now behaves as expected in situations like the following where the
467 font `foo' is undefined:
470 normal text \f[foo]bar\fP normal text
472 Previously, the text after \fP appeared as bold.
474 The `substring' request is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
476 The predefined `.T' string register (which holds the current output device)
477 is not new, but hasn't been documented before.
479 A new request `length' computes the length of a string and returns it in
482 The macro files `tmac.a4' (for specifying A4 paper format) and `tmac.trace'
483 (a debugging aid) are now installed also.
485 A new resource file, `troffrc-end', is now available. It is invoked after
486 all user-specified macros. Currently used by the html device to include
487 tmac.html; thus no need for users to specify -mhtml anymore.
489 The soft hyphen character now has a glyph name: `shc'.
491 The latin-1 character 173 (PS name `periodcentered') has got the troff glyph
492 name `pc' and is no longer intermixed with the symbol character `md' (PS
495 ASCII character 34 (PS name `quotedbl') has got the troff glyph name `dq'
496 (which is an alias to character `"').
498 ASCII character 39 (PS name `quoteright') has got the troff glyph name `cq'
499 (which is an alias to character "'").
501 Some additions to the font description files have been implemented for
502 better support of HTML output:
504 The new format of lines in the `charset' subsection of font description
507 name metrics type code [entity_name] [-- comment]
509 Currently, only the font description files in devhtml use the optional
510 entity_name string to define glyph entities in HTML. Everything after the
511 entity_name field is ignored; in case this field isn't used, two hyphen
512 characters are now necessary to start a comment.
514 Two new requests are available in DESC files (currently used only with
517 use_charnames_in_special
518 This command indicates that troff should encode named characters
519 inside special commands.
522 requests that troff tells the driver the source file name being
523 processed. This is achieved by another tcommand: `F filename'.
528 Bruno Haible <haible@clisp.cons.org> contributed support for UTF8 output.
533 Added .LINE macro to tmac.arkup.
535 The obsolete `.LINK' macro has been removed.
537 .URL, .FTP, and .MAILTO macros now accept an optional third argument which
538 will be immediately appended to the second argument (to be used with
539 punctuation, for example).
544 The font size 11pt has been changed to 10.95pt (as used in LaTeX 2e).
546 A new font file CWI (using cmitt10; this is typewriter italic) has been
552 A new driver for Canon CAPSL printers (LBP-4 and LBP-8 series laser
553 printers). This code has been contributed by Francisco Andres Verdu
554 <pandres@dragonet.es>.
559 A new preprocessor to process gremlin pictures. It is based on the
560 original Berkeley implementation of grn, written by David Slattengren
561 and Barry Roitblat, and has been adapted to groff by Daniel Senderowicz
562 <daniel@synchrods.com> and Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>.
567 Added the `srand' command to set the seed for a new sequence of
568 pseudo-random numbers to be returned by `rand'.
573 Simplified installation: The Imakefile will now be configured (by groff's
579 Three new man pages are available: groff_tmac.5 (documenting how troff macros
580 are accessed and where they are found), groff.7 (a short reference of the GNU
581 roff language), and roff.7 (a general survey on GNU troff).
586 A partial port to win32 (for use with Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0) is now part
587 of the distribution. It has been contributed by Blake McBride
588 <blake@florida-software.com>.
590 More information about programs, macros, documentation, etc., which is
591 related to groff has been collected in the file `MORE.STUFF'.
593 VERSION 1.13, 1.14, 1.15
594 ========================
596 Bug fixes only; no user-visible changes.
601 Finally, there are new maintainers for groff. Mailing lists and a CVS
602 repository are available also. See the file README for details. Not all
603 reported bugs could be fixed, so please send mails again if something is
606 Most of the installation problems should have vanished now (most
607 notably the $(tmac_wrap) bug).
609 There is now a man page called groff_man.7 which documents the basics of the
610 -man macros. It has been originally written by Susan G. Kleinmann
613 A (still incomplete) groff reference manual in texinfo format originally
614 contributed by Trent A. Fisher <trent@gnurd.portland.or.us>.
616 me.man and msafer.man have been renamed to groff_me.man
617 resp. groff_msafer.man for consistency.
619 Default strings for macros in doc-common resp. tmac.an no longer contain the
622 groff should now be Y2k safe (fixes contributed by Paul Eggert
623 <eggert@twinsun.com>).
625 Following the GNU standards, groff will now use the prefix `/usr/local/' as
626 the default instead of replacing an existent groff binary.
628 groff, troff, nroff, and pic now support the -U flag to activate unsafe
629 behaviour (without -msafer); the -S flag for using the -msafer macros is now
635 This is a new output device for producing HTML output contributed by Gaius
636 Mulley <gaius@glam.ac.uk>. It is still very alpha but has been included
637 into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Bug
638 reports are highly welcome.
643 Duplex printing support has been contributed by Jeffrey Copeland
649 Added -I option for defining include paths (patch contributed by Peter
650 Miller <peterm@jna.com.au>).
655 Fallback resources added (patch contributed by Larry Jones
656 <larry.jones@sdrc.com>).
658 Will now support 8 gray levels.
663 New version 1.32 (contributed by Joergen Haegg <jh@axis.com>).
668 Complete documentation for pic is now in the file doc/pic.ms. It was
669 contributed by Eric S. Raymond, <esr@thyrsus.com>, who is emphatically
670 *not* volunteering to take over groff as he is way overworked with
671 half a dozen other projects.
676 The directory where data files are installed has been changed from
677 /usr/local/lib/groff to /usr/local/share/groff to comply with the
678 latest GNU coding standards.
680 By default groff programs with Unix equivalents are installed with a
681 "g" prefix unless there is an existing (non-groff) troff installation.
683 A new approach is used to make system macro packages available to
684 groff. Instead of simply including /usr/lib/tmac in the list of
685 directories searched by groff, the installation process creates for
686 each system macro package a wrapper macro package in the groff macro
687 directory that references the system macro package. The groff macro
688 packages are now installed with a leading "g" prefix if there is a
689 system version of the same macro package, and otherwise without the
690 "g" prefix, with the exception that the groff version of -me which is
691 always installed as -me.
693 There is a new device, lj4, for the HP LaserJet 4 (and PCL5
699 groff has a -S option that prevents the use of unsafe features in pic
700 and troff. This uses a new -S option of pic and the -msafer macros
706 The `blm' request specifies a macro to be invoked when a blank line is
712 A -S (safer) option disables the sh command.
717 The -m option enables manual feed.
722 \(rn will now produce a character that has the traditional metrics,
723 and will form corners with \(ul and \(br. This means that it will not
724 align properly with \(sr. Instead there's a new character
725 \[radicalex] which aligns with \(sr; this is used by eqn for doing
731 The `pso' request allows you to read from the standard output of a
737 The PSPIC macro has options to allow the horizontal alignment of the
738 graphic to be specified.
746 The escape sequence \V[xxx] will interpolate the value of the
747 environment variable xxx.
752 The decimalpoint option can be used to specify the character to be
753 recognized as the decimal point character in place of the default
762 The environment variable GROFF_COMMAND_PREFIX can be used to control
763 whether groff looks for `gtroff' or `troff' (similarily for the
769 Multilingual hyphenation is supported by new `hpf' and `hla' requests,
770 and by a `\n[.hla]' number register. The -H option has been removed.
771 Files of hyphenation patterns can have comments.
773 When a font cannot be found, troff gives a warning (of type `font',
774 enabled by default) instead of an error.
776 There's a new request `trnt' that's like `tr' except that it doesn't
777 apply to text transparently throughput into a diversion with \!.
782 There is a `nokeep' option which tells tbl not to use diversions to
783 try to keep the table on one page.
788 Setting the parameter `nroff' to a non-zero value causes `ndefine' to
789 behave like `define' and `tdefine' to be ignored. This is done by
790 eqnrc when the current device is ascii or latin1. There's a `neqn'
791 script that just does `eqn -Tascii'.
796 grotty uses whatever page length was specified using the `pl' request
797 rather than using the paperlength command in the DESC file. The
798 paperwidth command in the DESC file is also ignored.
803 The programs in groff that have Unix counterparts can now be installed
804 without a leading `g' prefix. See the `g' variable in the Makefile.
806 The g?nroff script simulates the nroff command using groff.
808 New special characters \(+h, \(+f, \(+p, \(Fn, \(Bq, \(bq, \(aq, \(lz,
809 \(an. See groff_char(7).
811 ^L is now a legal input character.
816 The Xps pseudo-device has disappeared. Instead there is a new -X
817 option that tells groff to use gxditview instead of the usual
818 postprocessor. (So instead of -TXps, use -XTps or just -X if your
819 default device is ps.)
821 The postprocessor to be used for a particular device is now specified
822 by a `postpro' command in the DESC file rather than being compiled
823 into groff. Similarly the command to be used for printing (with the
824 -l option) is now specified by a `print' command in the DESC file.
826 The groff command no longer specifies eqnchar as an input file for
827 eqn. Instead eqn automatically loads a file `eqnrc'. The groff
828 command no longer passes the -D option to eqn. Instead eqnrc sets the
829 draw_lines parameter.
831 The groff command no longer tells troff to load a device-specific
832 macro file. This is handled instead by the `troffrc' file, which is
833 always loaded by troff.
835 The shell script version of groff has been removed.
840 The `rchar' request removes a character definition established with `char'.
842 Compatibility mode is disabled and the escape character is set to `\'
843 while a character definition is being processed.
845 The `\#' escape sequence is like `\"' except that the terminating
848 The `shc' request tells troff which character to insert (instead of
849 the default \(hy) when a word is hyphenated at a line break.
851 A font name of 0 (zero) in the DESC file will cause no font to be
852 mounted on the corresponding font position. This is useful for
853 arranging that special fonts are mounted on positions on which users
854 are not likely explicitly to mount fonts. All groff devices now avoid
855 initially mounting fonts on positions 5-9.
857 The `do' request allows a single request or macro to be interpreted
858 with compatibility mode disabled.
860 troff automatically loads a file `troffrc' before any other input file.
861 This can be prevented with the -R option. This file is responsible
862 for loading the device-specific macros.
867 The -x option has been removed and a -n option has been added. By
868 default, pic now assumes that the postprocessor supports groff
869 extensions. The -n option tells pic to generate output that works
870 with ditroff drivers. The -z option now applies only to TeX mode.
872 The -p option has been removed. Instead if the -n option is not
873 specified, pic generates output that uses \X'ps: ...' if the \n(0p
874 register is non-zero and tmac.ps sets this register to 1.
876 In places where you could 1st or 5th you can now say `i'th or `i+1'th
877 (the quotes are required).
882 Eqn now automatically reads a file `eqnrc' from the macro directory.
883 This performs the same role that the eqnchar files used to. This can
884 be prevented by the -R option.
886 Setting the draw_lines parameter to a non-zero value causes lines to
887 be drawn using \D rather than \l. The -D option is now obsolete.
889 `uparrow', `downarrow' and `updownarrow' can be used with `left' and
892 The amount of extra space added before and after lines containing
893 equations can be controlled using the `body_height' and `body_depth'
899 Font description files have been regenerated from newer AFM files.
900 You can get access to the additional characters present in the text
901 fonts in newer PostScript printers by using -mpsnew.
903 The default value of the -b option is specified by a `broken' command
906 With the -g option, grops will generate PostScript code that guesses
907 the page height. This allows documents to be printed on both letter
908 (8.5x11) and A4 paper without change.
913 ISO Latin-1 characters are available with -Tdvi. Format groff_char(7)
914 with groff -Tdvi for more information.
919 The -mtty-char macros contain additional character definitions for
925 In previous releases the groff -me macros treated the $r and $R number
926 registers in a way that was incompatible with the BSD -me macros. The
927 reason for this was that the approach used by the BSD -me macros does
928 not work with low resolution devices such as -TX75 and -TX100.
929 However, this caused problems with existing -me documents. In this
930 release, the vertical spacing is controlled by the $v and $V registers
931 which have the same meaning as $r and $R in earlier groff releases.
932 In addition, if the $r or $R register is set to a value that would be
933 correct for for the BSD -me macros and a low resolution device is not
934 being used, then an appropriate value for the $v or $V register will
935 be derived from the $r or $R register.
937 The groff -me macros work with -C and (I think) with Unix troff.
939 For backward compatibility with BSD -me, the \*{ and \*} strings are
940 also available as \*[ and \*]. Of course, \*[ will only be usable
943 The \*T string has been deleted. Use \*(Tm instead.
948 The `n', Space and Return keys are bound to the Next Page action. The
949 `p', BackSpace and Delete keys are bound to the Previous Page action.
950 The `q' key is bound to the Quit action.
952 The `r' key is bound to a rerasterize action that reruns groff, and
953 redisplays the current page.
961 There is a alternative assignment operator `:=' which interacts
962 differently with blocks.
964 There is a new command `command', which allows the values of variables
965 to be passed through to troff or TeX.
967 The `print' command now accepts multiple arguments.
969 String comparison expressions (using `==' or `!=') are allowed in more
975 Horizontal and vertical lines drawn with \D'l ...' will be rendered
976 using -, | and + characters. This is intended to give reasonable
977 results with boxed tables. It won't work well with pic.
982 The -mdoc macros have been upgraded to the version in the second
983 Berkeley networking release. This version is not completely
984 compatible with earlier versions; the old version is still available
985 as -mdoc.old. The grog script has been enhanced so that it can
986 usually determine whether a document requires the old or new versions.
988 With -TX75, -TX100 and -TXps, the PSPIC macro will produce a box
989 around where the picture would appear with -Tps.
994 An implementation of the -mm macros is included.
996 The directory in which temporary files are created can be controlled
997 by setting the GROFF_TMPDIR or TMPDIR environment variables.
1002 Some MS-DOS support (see pic/make-dos-dist).
1007 There are two new \X commands (\X'ps: invis' and \X'ps: endinvis')
1008 which make it possible to have substitute characters that are
1009 displayed when previewing with -TXps but ignored when printing with
1015 Support for scalable fonts.
1020 No changes other than bug fixes.
1025 There is an implementation of refer and associated programs. groff -R
1026 preprocesses with grefer; no mechanism is provided for passing
1027 arguments to grefer because most grefer options have equivalent
1028 commands which can be included in the file. grog also supports refer.
1030 There is an alternative perl implementation of the grog script.
1032 The code field in lines in the charset section of font description
1033 files is now allowed to contain an arbitrary integer (previously it
1034 was required to lie between 0 and 255). Currently grops and grodvi
1035 use only the low order 8 bits of the value. Grodvi will use the
1036 complete value; however, this is unlikely to be useful with
1037 traditional TeX tools (.tfm files only allow 8 bit character codes.)
1039 Left and right double quotes can be obtained with \(lq and \(rq
1042 There is a new program called pfbtops which translates PostScript
1043 fonts in pfb format to ASCII.
1045 A slightly modified version of the Berkeley tmac.doc is included.
1050 In long escape names the closing ] is now required to be at the same
1051 input level as the opening [.
1053 The \A'S' escape sequence returns 1 or 0 according as S is or is not
1054 suitable for use as a name.
1056 \~ produces an unbreakable space that can be stretched when the line
1059 The `mso' request is like the `so' request except that it searches for
1060 the file in the same directories in which tmac.X is searched for when
1061 the -mX option is given.
1063 The escape sequence `\R' is similar to the `nr' request.
1068 A new `special' primitive allows you to add new types of unary
1069 constructs by writing a troff macro.
1074 The implementation no longer uses gperf.
1079 The compile-time -DBROKEN_SPOOLER option has been replaced by a
1080 BROKEN_SPOOLER_FLAGS option. This allows more precise control over
1081 how grops should workaround broken spoolers and previewers. There is
1082 a new -b option that can change this at run-time.
1084 Grops now generates PostScript that complies with version 3.0 of the
1085 Document Structuring Convention.
1087 The resource management component of grops (the part that deals with
1088 imported documents and downloadable fonts) has been rewritten and now
1089 supports version 3.0 of the Document Structuring Conventions. The
1090 %%DocumentFonts comment is no longer supported; you must use the
1091 %%Document{Needed,Supplied}{Fonts,Resources} comments instead
1094 tmac.psatk contains some macros that support the mechanism used by the
1095 Andrew Toolkit for including PostScript graphics in troff documents.
1100 Parts of xditview have been rewritten so that it can be used with the
1101 output of gtroff -Tps. groff -TXps will run gtroff -Tps with
1104 There is a new menu entry `Print' which brings up a dialog box for
1105 specifying a command with which the file being previewed should be
1108 Xditview now uses imake.
1113 The groff command now understands the gtroff `-a' and `-i' options.
1115 With the `m' and `n' scale indicators, the scale factor is rounded
1116 horizontally before being applied. This makes (almost) no difference
1117 for devices with `hor' equal to 1, but it makes groff with -Tascii or
1118 -Tlatin1 behave more like nroff in its treatment of these scale
1119 indicators. Accordingly tmac.tty now calls the `nroff' request so
1120 that the `n' condition will be true.
1122 The device-specific macros (tmac.ps, tmac.dvi, tmac.tty and tmac.X)
1123 have been made to work at least somewhat with -C. In particular the
1124 special characters defined by these macros now work with -C.
1126 groff -Tdvi -p will now pass pic the -x flag; this will enable filling
1127 of arrowheads and boxes, provided that your dvi driver supports the
1128 latest version of the tpic specials.
1133 There is a new `-N' option that tells eqn not to allow newlines in
1134 delimiters. This allows eqn to recover better from missing closing
1135 delimiters. The groff command will pass on a `-N' option to eqn.
1140 You can now use psfig with grops. See the file ps/psfig.diff. I do
1141 not recommend using psfig for new documents.
1143 The command \X'ps: file F' is similar to \X'ps: exec ...' except that
1144 the PostScript code is read from the file F instead of being contained
1145 within the \X command. This was added to support psfig.
1150 There are font files HB and HI corresponding to cmsssbx10 and cmssi10.
1155 The groff -me macros now work with the -C option. As a result, they
1156 may also work with Unix nroff/troff.
1158 In -me, the $r and $R number registers now contain the line spacing as
1159 a percentage of the pointsize expressed in units (normally about 120).
1160 The previous definition was useless with low resolution devices such
1166 A -ms-like macro-package is now included.
1168 The name for the Icelandic lowercase eth character has been changed
1174 There is a new request `nroff', which makes the `n' built-in condition
1175 true and the `t' built-in condition false; also a new request `troff'
1176 which undoes the effect of the `nroff' request. This is intended only
1177 for backward compatibility: it is usually better to test \n(.H or
1178 \n(.V or to use the `c' built-in condition.
1180 The \R escape sequence has been deleted. Use \E instead.
1182 There are `break' and `continue' requests for use with the `while'
1185 There is a request `hym' that can ensure that when the current
1186 adjustment mode is not `b' a line will not be hyphenated if it is no
1187 more than a given amount short, and a request `hys' that can ensure
1188 that when the current adjustment mode is `b' a line will not be
1189 hyphenated if it can be justified by adding no more than a given
1190 amount of extra space to each word space.
1192 There is a request `rj' similar to `ce' that right justifies lines.
1194 A warning of type `space' will be given when a call is made to an
1195 undefined request or macro with a name longer than two characters, and
1196 the first two characters of the name make a name that is defined.
1197 This is intended to find places where a space has been omitted been a
1198 request or macro and its argument. This type of warning is enabled by
1204 A comma is permitted between the arguments to the `reset' command.
1206 For use with TeX, there is a new `-c' option that makes gpic treat
1207 lines beginning with `.' in a way that is more compatible with tpic
1213 It is no longer necessary to add `space 0' at the beginning of
1214 complicated equations inside pictures.
1216 `prime' is now treated as an ordinary character, as in Unix eqn. The
1217 previous behaviour of `prime' as an operator can now be obtained using
1223 There are two new devices X75-12 and X100-12 which are the same as X75
1224 and X100 except that they are optimized for documents that use mostly
1230 The installation process has been refined to make it easy for you to
1231 share groff with someone who has the same type of machine as you but
1232 does not have a C++ compiler. See the end of the INSTALL file for
1235 There is a man page for the tfmtodit program which explains how to use
1236 your own fonts with groff -Tdvi.
1238 There is a man page for afmtodit which explains how to use your own
1239 PostScript fonts with groff -Tps.
1241 The \N escape sequence is now fully supported. It can now be used to
1242 access any character in a font by its output code, even if it doesn't
1243 have a groff name. This is made possible by a convention in the font
1244 files that a character name of `---' refers to an unnamed character.
1245 The drivers now all support the `N' command required for this. The font
1246 description files have been updated to include unnamed characters.
1248 The `x' command in font description files has been removed: instead
1249 any unknown commands are automatically made available to the drivers.
1250 If you constructed your own font files with an earlier version of
1251 tfmtodit or afmtodit, you must construct them again using the current
1254 Characters between 0200 and 0237 octal are no longer legal input
1255 characters. Note that these are not used in ISO 8859.
1257 A command called `grog' has been added, similar to the `doctype'
1258 command described in Kernighan and Pike.
1263 The groff command has some new options: -V prints the pipeline
1264 instead of executing it; -P passes an argument to the postprocessor,
1265 -L passes an argument to the spooler.
1267 There is a C++ implementation of the groff command. This handles some
1268 things slightly better than the shell script. In particular, it can
1269 correctly handle arguments containing characters that have a special
1270 meaning to the shell; it can give an error message when child
1271 processes other than the last in the pipeline terminate abnormally;
1272 its exit status can take account of the exit statuses of all its child
1273 processes; it is a little more efficient; when geqn is used, it
1274 searches for the eqnchar file in the same way that font metric files
1275 are searched for, rather than expecting to find it in one particular
1281 There is font translation feature: For example, you can tell gtroff to
1282 use font `HR' whenever font `H' is requested with the line
1284 This would be useful for a document that uses `H' to refer to
1287 There are some new number registers: `.kern' contains the current kern
1288 mode, `.lg' the current ligature mode, `.x' the major version number,
1289 `.y' the minor version number, `.ce' the number of lines to be
1290 centered in the current environment, `.trunc' the amount of vertical
1291 space truncated by the most recently sprung vertical position trap,
1292 `.ne' the amount of vertical space needed in the last `ne' request
1293 that caused a vertical position trap to be sprung.
1295 The `cf' request now behaves sensibly in a diversion. If used in a
1296 diversion, it will now arrange for the file to be copied to the output
1297 when the diversion is reread.
1299 There is a new request `trf' (transparent file) similar to `cf', but
1302 There is a new escape sequence `\Y[xxx]', roughly equivalent to
1303 `\X'\*[xxx]'', except that the contents of string or macro xxx are not
1304 interpreted, and xxx may contain newlines. This requires an output
1305 format extension; the drivers have been modified to understand this.
1306 Grops has also been modified to cope with newlines in the arguments to
1307 \X commands; grops has a new \X command mdef, which is like def except
1308 that it has a first argument giving the number of definitions.
1310 There is a new warning category `escape' which warns about unknown
1313 The `fp' request now takes an optional third argument giving the external
1316 The `\_' character is now automatically translated to `\(ul' as in troff.
1318 The environment variable `GROFF_HYPHEN' gives the name of the file
1319 containing the hyphenation patterns.
1321 There is a `\C'xxx'' escape sequence equivalent to `\[xxx]'.
1323 Characters ", ', ), ], *, \(dg are now initially transparent for the purposes
1324 of end of sentence recognition.
1326 There is an anti-recursion feature in the `char' request, so you can
1327 say `.char \(bu \s+2\(bu\s-2'.
1329 The limit on the number of font positions has been removed.
1330 Accordingly `\n[.fp]' never returns 0.
1332 The restriction on the number of numbered environments has been removed.
1334 There is a new escape sequence `\E' that makes it possible to
1335 guarantee that an escape sequence won't get interpreted in copy-mode.
1336 The `\R' escape sequence is accordingly now deprecated.
1341 Arguments of the form `X anything X' (in the `copy thru', `sh', `for',
1342 `if' and `define' constructs) can now be of the form `{ anything }'.
1344 If the `linethick' variable is negative (as it now is initially),
1345 lines will be drawn with a thickness proportional to the current point
1348 The `rand' function now takes no arguments and returns a number between
1349 0 and 1. The old syntax is still supported.
1351 `^' can be used in expressions to indicate exponentiation.
1353 In the `for' construct the argument to the by clause can be prefixed
1354 by `*' to indicate that the increment is multiplicative.
1356 A bare expression may be used as an attribute. If the current
1357 direction is `dir', then an attribute `expr' is equivalent to
1360 There is a `sprintf' construct that allows numbers to be formatted and used
1361 wherever a quoted string can be used.
1363 The height of a text object without an explicit height attribute is
1364 the number of text strings associated with the object times the value
1365 of the `textht' variable.
1367 The maximum height and width of a picture is controlled by the
1368 `maxpswid' and `maxpsht' variables.
1373 Gtbl can now handle gracefully the situation where the `ce' request
1374 has been applied to a table.
1379 The `ifdef' primitive has been generalized.
1381 A tilde accent can be put underneath a box using `utilde'. This
1382 defined using a general `uaccent' primitive.
1387 There is a new PostScript font downloading scheme which handles font
1388 downloading for imported illustrations. Previously, the name of the
1389 file containing the font was given in the `x download' line in the
1390 groff font metric file. Now, there is a `download' file which says
1391 for each PostScript font name which file contains that font. Grops
1392 can also now handle inter-font dependencies, where one downloadable
1393 font depends on some other (possibly downloadable) font.
1395 The `T' font has been removed. The characters it used to provide are
1396 now provided by `char' definitions in tmac.ps. TSymbol.ps has also
1397 been removed, and the tweaks it provided are now provided by `char'